Tee Ball managers and coaches are not professionals. Typically, they are somewhat reluctant volunteers who give in to the opportunity to coach their children while the stakes are fairly low. They discover along the way that they have signed on to a huge responsibility and they're expected to have at least some sort of clue about the game.
Where Do They Find The Managers & Coaches?
My eldest son played Tee Ball two years before I began coaching the game and I had absolutely no idea what it took to try to bring a team together. I watched every practice and every game I could, but still had no real appreciation for how his coach got his job or how he went about his business.
I became a Tee Ball manager and coach the same way a lot of people do — I told someone that it would be neat to coach my kid some day — I must have said it one too many times to one too many people. I received a phone call shortly before the season began and was asked to manage a team that had some problems with managers and coaches in the past. I hesitated because my work schedule was so rigorous and it meant having my eldest son change teams in his last year of Tee Ball. I agreed to take the job and found out that I was left with only three players from the previous season. That didn't really bother me too much until I saw what all of the other teams were bringing along. I had to build a team of 13 players practically from scratch and I wasn't sure how to begin. Fortunately, the park's Tee Ball Commissioner, the man who had asked me to manage, was more than helpful. He managed a team of his own and was very generous with advice on how to practice and what to practice on. Unfortunately, I'm sure I missed three-quarters of what he had to say because it was so foreign to me. The things I did follow were very difficult to put into practice because I didn't really have a core of player and coaching experience to build upon. I asked every parent on the team to volunteer as much as they could and tried to find three parents to serve as full-time coaches. I was lucky enough to find some great help.
Almost anyone you can talk into coaching tee ball has at least played some kind of ball before. However, very few will have ever had prior coaching experience. Coaching is much different than playing and having been a good player is no assurance that you will be a good coach. A coach must possess certain qualities. Now, I choose the word "qualities" carefully because so many coaches simply have "characteristics." A coach has to be a good teacher, he has to be patient, he has to be confident and decisive, he has to be nurturing when his players get hurt or make mistakes, and he has to be able to get as much as he can out of his players without going too far. Managers don't have to look for coaches that fit this description, but they do need to find people who will be willing and able to adopt these qualities and adapt to the environment the manager sets. If they're lucky, as I was, their coaches will be good because the parents of the kids on their team are good.
Coaches, remember that your assistant coaches will probably know much less about the game than you do. They're parents just like you. You have to work very hard to develop in your coaches an appreciation and consensus for your goals for the team and the strategies for achieving them. Regardless of what they do or don't know about the game, it's very important that they respect the manager's position. There is no way a team will achieve its best when the coaching staff is at odds with itself. There are hundreds of ways to coach a team; assistant coaches must recognize this and hitch their wagons to the team that the manager brings, providing meaningful and discrete advice and dissent as they go.
Since assistant coaches are normally new to tee ball coaching, managers often have to help them learn how to coach. One good way to break a coach in and get him into the flow of working with players is to practice base running with him coaching a base. It can be very frustrating for him to try to get a 5-year old player to understand when to slide, or when to run through 1st base, or take two steps on a fly ball. Coaches quickly get over their reluctance to speak up when the runners don't execute their instructions the way they want them to.
What's Their Job?
The manager is the single point of contact between the team and local park officials. Most of the time, the manager also assumes the role as the head coach. Many parks aren't funded or staffed sufficiently to keep teams from having to raise funds to keep the park in business, so there might be obligations that the team needs to meet such as concession duty, score keeping, fund-raising, field preparation, and more that the manager has to coordinate. The manager simply coordinates these efforts and counts on the participation of the players' parents — with their cooperation, he can devote more time to his actual coaching duties.
They Have To Understand The Rules
Tee Ball is played just like baseball except for the rules that are intended to balance the advantage the batter enjoys as a result of him hitting a stationary ball off the tee. That one facet of this game presents angles peculiar to Tee Ball that must be examined, understood, and communicated to coaches, players, and parents. I've been in games where parents who've been around the game for a few years heckle umpires and coaches because of calls and decisions they've made and the only mistake that was made was that the parent didn't understand the game. For instance, Tee Ball Baseball has specific rules about the stoppage of play after the ball is hit. If you don't know those rules, this game can be very frustrating. Tee Ball parents normally count on their coaches to help them understand the rules of the game, but I can tell you that coaches often do not fill this gap — many times, the rules are new to them too. Once you're finished reading this booklet, pick up a copy of the official Tee Ball Baseball rules and read them from cover to cover — you'll end up very well-informed and prepared. If you don't know your way around Official Baseball Rules, read up on them as well. The more you know about the game, the better off your children will be (it might also keep you from pressing the umpire too far on a judgment call).
Tee Ball Baseball® Rules
As I've already said, my children have played in a couple of different tee ball programs under different rules. The various national affiliates often have their own rules, but frankly, those rules tend to appear to treat tee ball as a bit of an afterthought -- not a lot of imagination and gamesmanship went into the creation of some of them.
The best rules I've seen for playing tee ball are those written and updated annually by the affiliate that created the game in the first place, Tee Ball Baseball, Inc., headquartered in Milton, Florida. Tee Ball Baseball, Inc. sanctions leagues that desire to franchise with them and can be contacted at the address noted inside the front cover of this book.
A sampling of the rules contained in the Tee Ball Baseball rule book follow:
The Tee Ball Baseball official rule book calls for 45' baseline distances and 115' to 125' fence distances (125' for championship play). Around home plate, there is a 10' arc -- if a batted ball fails to go beyond this arc, it's a foul ball. The pitcher's "mound" is a circle with a radius of 5', the center of which is 35' from the tee (the pitcher must stay within this circle until the ball is hit). The batter's box is 5' long and 3' wide. It is placed 6" off of home plate with 2' extending forward from the center of home plate (and 3' extending backward from the center of the plate).
The ball is the 4 ounce TB-100 orange ball produced by Worth Sports Company (it's 1 ounce lighter than a regulation baseball). The bat is not less than 24" nor more than 27" in length and the barrel is not greater than 2-1/4" in diameter. Batters, runners, and catchers wear batting helmets.
The game length is 6 innings. Starting lineups consist of 10 players -- the 10th player is an additional outfielder. There is a mandatory participation rule: 3 full innings on defense and at least one turn at bat. A team on offense has 3 outs or 10 batters, whichever comes first, per inning.
There is no infield fly rule and no bunting, chopped swings, or any other kind of swing that is intended to "kill" the batted ball. Three strikes and you're out and three fouls on the third strike and you're out too.
The batter hits the ball and the defense does its level best to get him out with a good baseball play (no running half way across the field to make a one-man play). Once the ball is hit and cleanly fielded, the umpire blows a whistle. The whistle means that the player can advance no further than the base to which he is headed. The play is ended when the players are on base and the ball is rolled into the catcher. No defensive team in its right mind rolls the ball into the catcher until the players are forced back to their bases.
Coaches And Their Kids
The most difficult thing a coach has to do is see the 12 players on the field who are not related to him. We tend to be very tough on our own kids without giving them the consideration we give the other players. If you can do it, try to be a coach on the field and a parent off the field, and get your fellow coaches to do the same. Impartiality (and avoiding excessive impartiality) is essential to success.
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